chef

Borrowed from French chef (from the positions of chef d'office and chef de cuisine),[1] from Old French chief (“head, leader”) (English chief), from Vulgar Latin *capum (“head”) (from which also captain, chieftain), from Latin caput (“head”) (English cap (“head covering”)), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput- (English head).

• IPA^(key): /ʃɛf/
• Rhymes: -ɛf

chef (plural chefs)

1. The presiding cook in the kitchen of a large household.
   • <1845, R. H. Barham, Blasphemer's Warning in Ingoldsby Legends (1847), 3rd Ser., 245

     The Chef's peace of mind was restor'd, And in due time a banquet was placed on the board.

2. The head cook of a restaurant or other establishment.
   • 1849, Thackeray, Pendennis (1850), I. xxviii. 266

     The angry little chef of Sir Francis Clavering's culinary establishment.

3. Any cook.
   • Kiss the chef. (slogan on aprons used by home barbecue enthusiasts)
4. (slang) One who manufactures illegal drugs; a cook.
   • 1998, SPIN (volume 14, number 3, page 100)

     But trying to stop all the nation's meth chefs makes as much sense as building a wall along the Mexican border.

   • 2013, Mike Power, Drugs 2.0

     Owsley Stanley, the world's most exacting and prolific LSD chef who supplied the majority of America's West Coast with LSD in the 1960s, claimed he made so much acid not because he wanted to change the world, but rather because it was almost impossible not to make vast quantities of the drug once the synthesis had been embarked upon.

5. (historical) A reliquary in the shape of a head.

When used in reference to a cook with no sous-chefs or other workers beneath him, the term connotes a certain degree of prestige—whether culinary education or ability—distinguishing the chef from a “cook”. As a borrowing, chef was originally italicized, but such treatment is now obsolete. Within a catering establishment, the head cook (and no-one else) will normally be addressed simply as "chef" as a term of respect.

• chefly

• (head cook): cook

chef (third-person singular simple present chefs, present participle cheffing, simple past and past participle cheffed) (MLE)

1. To stab with a knife, to shank, to lacerate with a rambo.
   • 2016, ASAP of 67 (lyrics), “Skeng Man”:

     Still on my knife work chef him up with that rambo

   • 2018 August 9, Taze of SMG (lyrics), “Pallance 2.0”:

     He got cheffed in the A in the head

   • 2018 August 16, Sav12 of 12World (lyrics), “Ks On Who”:

     Third time he was out of luck
     He tripped up and got cheffed

Borrowed from French chef.

• IPA^(key): [ˈɕɛːˀf]

chef c (singular definite chefen, plural indefinite chefer)

1. A boss; person in charge, person who directly oversees the work being done

Borrowed from French chef.

• chef

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛf

chef m (plural chefs, diminutive chefje n, feminine cheffin)

1. A boss, chief, head, leader
2. Short for a title including chef, e.g. a culinary chef

• chefkok m
• sergeant-chef m
• stationchef m

From Middle French chief, from Old French chief, from Vulgar Latin *capum, from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Italic *kaput, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-, *kaput-. Doublet of cap.

• IPA^(key): /ʃɛf/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛf
• Homophones: cheffe, cheffes, chefs

chef m (plural chefs)

D'or au chef de gueules, qui est des Seigneurs de Wiltz.

1. (now literary) head

   opiner du chef

   to nod

2. article, principal point.

   Les principaux chefs d’une demande.

   The main points of a request.

3. principal motive

   Le procureur a tenu à refaire une lecture des chefs d’accusation.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

4. (heraldry) chief; top third of a coat of arms

chef m (plural chefs, feminine cheffe)

Le Chef de l’Hôtel Chatham, William Orpen, 1921.

1. A boss, chief, leader.

   Le pape est le chef de l’Église.

   The pope is the head of the church.

2. A culinary chef, chief cook

   Créant dans des établissements de prestige de nombreuses recettes reprises ensuite par d'autres chefs, Escoffier a fait connaitre internationalement la cuisine française.

   (please add an English translation of this usage example)

• “chef” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• scef (uncommon)

Borrowed from French chef.

chef m (invariable)

1. A chef; head cook

From Old French chief, from Latin caput.

• chief, chefe, cheefe, cheef, chyeef, chif, chife

• IPA^(key): /tʃeːf/

chef (uncountable)

1. A leader, boss, or director; a chief official; one in charge.
2. A authority or source of power; something which controls.
3. The main, important or foundational part of something.
4. The upper or topmost portion of something.
5. (heraldry) The heraldic chief.

• bonchef
• chefly
• cheveteyn
• myschef

• English: chief
• Scots: chief

• “chẹ̄f (n.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.

chef (inflected form cheve, comparative chever, superlative chevest)

1. Chief, head, top-ranking, executive; being in ultimate control.
2. Principal, foremost, predominant, primary; having the greatest importance.
3. High-quality, outstanding, notable, worthy; deserving recognition.
4. (rare) Infamous; grave.

• English: chief
• Scots: chief

• “chẹ̄f (adj.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.

chef

1. (rare) Principally, (the) most.

• “chẹ̄fe (adv.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-09-12.

From Old English ċeaf.

chef

1. Alternative form of chaf

From Old French chief, chef, from Vulgar Latin *capum, from Latin caput (“head”), from Proto-Indo-European *kauput-, *kaput-.

chef m (plural chefs)

1. (Jersey) chief

• chef dé deu (“chief mourner”)
• chef dé musique (“conductor”)

chef m (oblique plural ches, nominative singular ches, nominative plural chef)

1. Alternative form of chief

Borrowed from French chef.

chef m, f (plural chefs)

1. chef (the head cook of an establishment such as a restaurant)

Borrowed from Turkish kef, keyif.

chef n (plural chefuri)

1. (good) disposition, mood

   A nu avea chef de ceva.

   To not feel like/be in the mood for something.

2. desire, wish
3. (figuratively) appetite
4. whim, caprice
5. shindig, blowout,
6. revelry, binge; by extension, drunkenness

• (disposition) dispoziție
• (wish): dorință
• (appetite): poftă
• (caprice): capriciu, dambla
• (shindig): petrecere, zaiafet
• (drunkenness): beție

Borrowed from French chef.

chef m or f (plural chef)

1. A chef, head cook

Borrowed from French chef.

• IPA^(key): /ɧeːf/, /ɧɛːf/

• audio

  (file)

chef c

1. A boss; person in charge, person who directly oversees the work being done

• avdelningschef
• försäljningschef
• mellanchef